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Submission + - Couple trys to name baby '@'

Submitted by linuxwrangler
linuxwrangler writes: A Chinese couple has applied to name their baby @. The Chinese often use an English-like pronunciation of '@' with a pronounced 'T' which is similar in Mandarin to "love him". It is not-yet known if the government, which recently banned use of Arabic numerals, foreign languages, and non-Chinese symbols in names, will accept baby @.
Announcements

Submission + - Scientists claim to have broken the speed of light (breitbart.com)

Submitted by GnarlyDoug
GnarlyDoug writes: German scientists claim that they have broken the speed of light barrier while researching quantum tunneling. In effect they claimed that some photons traveled a greater distance than other photons in the same amount of time, and thus moved faster than the speed of light. Personally I'll wait to see what happens when their tests are peer reviewed and duplicated, but it's interesting.
Software

Submission + - Skype goes dark, may be offline until Friday (computerworld.com)

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: Skype is blaming software issues for a lengthy outage that may last for more than 24 hours. Some users claims there's a log-in authentication failure. "Those that are in stay in and those trying to sign in can't get in," according to Tom Keating. In what maybe an implicit acknowledgment, the company is recommending that users leave their client software active.
The Internet

Submission + - For Videotron, Unlimited Access now means 100Gb

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Canadian Internet access provider Videotron just sent a letter to all its "Extreme High Speed Unlimited Internet Access" customers announcing that, as of October the 1st, unlimited would mean 100Gb/month.

Over limit Gbs will cost 1.50$CA each.

The Videotron.ca Web site still advertizes the package as unlimited.
The Internet

Submission + - Vatican edits Wikipedia article on IRA man (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new internet tool shows how a Vatican computer was used to edit a web entry about Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, American researchers have claimed. They said news reports alleging Mr Adams's fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971 were edited. The Wikipedia page on Gerry Adams says it is "currently protected from editing until August 17, 2007 or until disputes have been resolved".
Networking

Submission + - TJX Security Breach described (techdirt.com)

Submitted by
Bunderfeld
Bunderfeld writes: "I was reading over at TechDirt and saw this story, thought everyone else would find it enlightening

"...The breach was apparently perpetrated by using poorly secured in-store kiosks, which were on the corporate network and not behind firewalls. Attackers stuck USB keys in the kiosks and loaded software that allowed them to be controlled remotely, and used as gateways onto the network.""
Debian

Submission + - Debian turns 14 today!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Debian, one of my long time favorite Linux distributions turned 14 today. Without the Debian project there would be no Ubuntu. Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. Debian is pronounced /de.bi.n/. It comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra. Happy 14th birthday Debian!
Announcements

Submission + - Watermarking to replace DRM? 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: News.com has an article on the announcement of Microsoft and Universal to introduce watermarking technology into audio files. The technology could serve several purposes including tracking file sharing statistics and insertion of advertisements into audio tracks. The article goes on to suggest that watermarking could possibly replace DRM in the near future.
Security

Submission + - No RealID? You'll Need a Passport (cnn.com)

Submitted by mmurphy000
mmurphy000 writes: According to CNN:

Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.


Note that these are the same passports which are already shipping with RFID tags.
The Internet

Submission + - Is Wikipedia Corrupt? (digg.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Almost a year ago, Wikipedia was forced to admit corruption among its volunteer administrator team when it became known that Wikipedia administrator Essjay (Ryan Jordan), had falsified his credentials online, and to the New Yorker magazine (after which he'd been hired by Jimbo Wales, who had full knowledge of the falsifications). This caused a public outcry resulting in Wales request for Jordan's resignation.

Today, new allegations of rampant Wikipedia administrator abuse have become prominent. Longtime Wikipedia administrator, Durova, one of Wikipedia's most abusive administrators has been identified as having taken a Wikipedia dispute case off-wiki, by relating false allegations of alleged editor misconduct to AP journalist Brian Bergstein. Durova is known for her recent submissions to SEO websites and other publications, exhorting them to join Wikipedia, and to seek non-legal remedies to libel on Wikipedia. Her suggestions caused an outcry from persons she'd damaged in her own right. Ross Dunn provides a report from the sidelines. Caveat Wikipedian.
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Defendant Cross-Sues Kazaa and AOL

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In what appears to be a first, RIAA defendant Michelle Santangelo, the 20-year old daughter of Patti Santangelo, has made a motion for leave to serve a third party complaint against Kazaa and AOL, as well as against someone who installed Kazaa software, in Elektra v. Santangelo II. Her proposed third-party complaint (pdf) alleges that any injuries plaintiffs might have sustained were the result of the third party defendants' "negligence and breaches... in the defective design of Sharman Network's program, "Kazaa" which was a dangerous instrumentality in its each and every use as it existed in 2002-2004; the trespassing and reckless installation by Matthew Seckler [the person who allegedly installed the software without authorization] of such program; the failure to warn by AOL and Sharman; the failure to block the downloading of such files by AOL; the improper blocking of alleged (RIAA) warning messages by AOL and Sharman; and, the secretive file sharing system of and by Kazaa.""
Communications

Submission + - 9th Circuit Very Skeptical of NSA Surveillance (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by iluvcapra
iluvcapra writes: Yesterday before a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the US government argued that two class action lawsuits against the government and AT&T should be dismissed, because to litigate them in open court would cause the revelation of state secrets. The lawsuits allege that the government has installed a vast system of electronic surveillance gear at internet gateways along the US west coast to monitor all internet traffic, and that this information is monitored without a warrant, even when both endpoints are domestic. The panel was extremely skeptical of the governments argument:

"Is it the government's position that when the country is engaged in a war, that the power of the executive when it comes to wiretapping is unchecked?" asked 83-year-old Judge Harry Pregerson, one of the court's staunchest liberals, of a Bush administration lawyer. "The king can do no wrong, is that what it comes down to?"


The government was unwilling to even provide a sworn affadavit that the eavesdropping was only of foreign correspondence. If the 9th Circuit allows the lawsuits to proceed, the government will appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The Courts

Russian Court Acquits allofmp3.com Owner 114

Posted by kdawson from the first-step-on-a-long-road dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Denis Kvasov, former owner of the music download website allofmp3.com, has been acquitted of violating intellectual property laws in a Moscow court. The court cited insufficient evidence of criminal activity — a question of fact — without touching the question of law of whether the site's activities (had they been proven by the prosecution) actually violated Russian copyright law. The trial's presiding judge said, 'I want to draw particular attention to the sloppy job done by prosecutors in collecting and analyzing the facts.' According to the Moscow Times, though, the allofmp3.com case is far from over. Two more criminal trials are scheduled to take place: one against Vladimir Mamotin, the media director of MediaServices, the parent company of allofmp3.com, and another against the company itself."
Biotech

Anti-Bacterial Soap No Better Than Plain Soap 479

Posted by kdawson from the hand-held-mutation-experiments dept.
eldavojohn writes to advise us to stop buying antibacterial soap, as it's no more effective than the regular stuff. And, using it introduces a risk of mutation of bacteria. From the article: "The team looked at 27 studies conducted between 1980 and 2006, and found that soaps containing triclosan within the range of concentrations commonly used in the community setting (0.1 to 0.45 percent wt./vol.) were no more effective than plain soaps. Triclosan is used in higher concentrations in hospitals and other clinical settings, and may be more effective at reducing illness and bacteria. Triclosan works by targeting a biochemical pathway in the bacteria that allows the bacteria to keep its cell wall intact. Because of the way triclosan kills the bacteria, mutations can happen at the targeted site... a mutation could mean that the triclosan can no longer get to the target site to kill the bacteria because the bacteria and the pathway have changed form."

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